Work was routine today. The sun was out which helped our spirits. I hoped it was helping the guy tied out in the cold but I sincerely doubt it did much good. Purely estimating, I pegged the temperature at around ten to fifteen degrees.
We were close enough to the airport that I could actually see the planes as they touched down. I couldn’t see what kind of cargo they had because of the way the buildings were located. I figured two more days of unloading stone. Three more days of digging and then the final two days of stone and we would join up to the airport.
I didn’t know if this was good or bad. Yes, we would have finished our task but there was no way they were going to let us just sit around. I’m sure they have something in mind and I doubt that it is going to be good.
The march back to camp was close to eight miles now and some of the older men were having a hard time. Several of the younger ones helped them alone. I grabbed one old guy and carried his shovel and let him lean against me until we got back to camp. The guards didn’t like it much but they didn’t interfere either.
We were taken to the assembly area and saw the man still tied to the pole. The commander came out and they cut him down. He fell to the ground, unmoving. We were dismissed and several of the prisoners went to help the man up. It was no use. He was dead, murdered because he wanted to spend an extra night with his wife. Totally senseless. It was murder pure and simple.
The last I saw of him, he was being taken to the grave site. I wondered about his wife. Had she undergone the same punishment? Had they done the same thing on the other side of the camp?
Every night I try to remember something good about my life or what I could or should have done better. If I ever get out of here I can tell you one thing for sure, I will certainly be more active in keeping abreast of what our government is doing. I will never take the Bill of Rights for granted again.
***
Day 37 Journal Entry
When we got up we were pretty shocked to find one of our numbers murdered. Someone had stabbed him in the throat with a spike fashioned by hand. We were all told to get dressed and stand at the end of our bunks.
I was thinking that this was not good. It had to have been someone in our barracks and now we were all going to be punished one way or another. A little later the camp commander and his assistant along with a dozen guards came in and went to talk to the barracks commander. I was trying to just keep looking ahead and make myself as small as possible.
The commander came back and told us he wanted to know who was responsible for this action. If that person did not come forward the barracks would be worked twelve hour shifts and receive half rations until such a time as someone did come forward. If that did not work he would draw one person’s number each day and have them shot until everyone in the barracks was executed. He gave us one week before he drew the first number.
Now I am no genius but I could immediately see the flaw in that. If he drew the person responsible for the murder and he was executed by firing squad no one would ever be able to come forward. I guess he was counting on someone ratting the person out or stepping forward. He waited but no one stepped up to take responsibility.
Of course when he left everyone started looking at the other people. The thing is, I didn’t even know who the guy was. I mean I had seen him a time or two because of our work detail but other than that I had never even spoken with him. I had never seen him have words with another person. He was certainly not one of the four that had fought with each other a few days ago.
My investigative reporter was trying to kick in and nose around and find out who was responsible but that was in another world. Now I was in the world of survival and that is all that is necessary. I was worried about the lack of food and the extra length of the shifts. If we worked twelve hours it would be very late when we got back and the temperature would be dropping.
A lot of the older men would just not be able to tolerate the extra hours and lack of nutrition. I just didn’t see how we were going to get out of this.
I was right about the extra hours. Two men died at one point during the day. They simply couldn’t go on. We carried them back to the camp and they were taken to the grave site. We found that by half rations the commander meant we would only get to eat every other night. We were turned away from the mess hall. We would not get food until tomorrow after our shift.
Today was our first day and that meant we only had six more days for the person to step forward before numbers were drawn and some was executed. I don’t know when I ever went to bed feeling so hopeless.
***
Day 38 Journal Entry
I am really too tired to even write much tonight. The day seemed to never end. Two more people died; one just as we got back to the camp. As bad as it sounds, it meant we didn’t have to carry him as far. I looked at the others around me; you can almost see many of them giving up. They were not cut out for labor or this type of treatment. It is the lack of food as much as anything. You are constantly hungry and now that we are on half portions we know we can only get something to eat every other day. At least we did get to eat tonight. I was afraid it would be less than usual but we got the full portion, which helped. They had corn for the vegetable and cooked carrots. I saved those to eat tomorrow as did many others. Day two is over and no one has come forward. I will write more tomorrow. I am just too tired tonight.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
- THE WHITE HOUSE –
“Madam President,” Taylor said excitedly.
“What is it Mr. Spears?”
“We have located two of the missing officers. General Ashcroft and Major Pearson are in Utah. I have a team headed that way to bring them back.”
“You actually have them in your possession?” she asked.
“Not exactly. We have located them and are ready to bring them in. I wanted to make sure we had adequate manpower before we made the arrest.”
“Are they together?”
“They have a cabin near Smithfield, Utah. It’s close to the Utah and Idaho border. They were stopped in the city of Logan, Utah and my men were able to follow them back to Smithfield. From there it was just a matter of tracking them down.”
“When will your people be in place?”
“They should be there within the next three hours. They will meet with the local ISS men and formulate the best plan for taking them down.”
“You do understand that don’t have to be gentle. I don’t really care if it is dead or alive. The only advantage of having them alive is if they know where others are located,” Clemons told him.
“I will update you just as soon as I get a report. I’ll pass along that alive would be good but if push comes to shove, they may use maximum force.”
“That should do nicely,” she said.
***
The ISS troops landed at the Logan-Cache airport at the northern edge of Logan. They were transported by SUVs and a few Hummers they had managed to round up in Smithfield, Utah another twenty minutes north on State Road 91. There they met up with the local ISS agents.
“How much further?” the ISS team leader asked.
“Maybe fifteen minutes. The road is pretty rough. The have a cabin at Crow Mountain. It’s not a big mountain but they do hold the high ground which gives them an advantage,” he was told by the local ISS agent.
“I’m not too worried about that. If there is just the two of them, we will have superior fire power and it won’t take long to flush them out. I’ll have over a hundred agents here within the next half hour. Show me on the map just exactly what we are up against.”
“Look here,” he said opening the map, “There is only one road going to the mountain. It circles around behind the mountain and the road splits again but both end in the same place. The cabin sits on the top of the mountain looking out. They can see in all directions. I know you will have a lot of men but I think it may be harder than you think. You will not have the element of surprise.”
“You let me wor
ry about that. We are going to go in at 2:00 a.m. With just the two of them, I doubt they have any watch set up.”
“Hey, it’s your show,” was all the local agent said folding the map and handing it to him.
***
Everyone was in full gear as they pulled the vehicles to the side of State Road 91. The team leader decided it would be better for them to walk in rather than try to drive up the mountain. It was a sound tactical decision to keep from giving their position away any sooner than necessary. With luck they could get people in the house before they could even respond.
When they got to the foot of the mountain, he sent one team around to follow the road up the backside. He split the other two groups so they could flank either side of the mountain. He figured the frontal attack was just too steep and would make the men easy targets.
At 2:00 a.m. the three sides started to advance. They were making good progress and nearing the top of the mountain by 2:45. The leader held up the backside until everyone else was in place. He told them to watch their crossfire and to start the advance. When they were no more than fifty yards from the cabin, machine gunfire and explosions filled the air. Mines had been placed around the building and the ISS men were tripping them. The machine gun and rifle fire was coming from all sides. The ISS team leader tried to make sense of it. How could two men be every place at once? His men were being slaughtered.
Just then a bullet caught him in the leg and he was thrown to the ground. He was finally able to get to his microphone and tell everyone to retreat back down the mountain. The gunfire started to diminish but every once in a while an explosion would take place. He lay there holding his leg, looking up at the stars and trying to understand what had just happened. He closed his eyes and then there was nothing.
***
“Easy young man,” a voice said when he tried to sit up.
He looked around trying to understand where he was and how he got there.
“You’re in our field hospital. You took a bullet in the leg. Nicked the bone but didn’t shatter it. I guess you were lucky,” the man said.
“My men?”
“Not so good. Sixty-two KIA, twenty WIA and in our care. The others? I assume they hightailed it.”
“You killed sixty-two of my men?” he asked in disbelief.
“So far. A couple of the wounded may not make it.”
“How? I don’t understand how two people could have done all of this?”
“Two?” the man said and laughed.
“We were told General Ashton and Major Pearson was in that cabin.”
“Well obviously someone misinformed you. It is true they were there but with all the ISS men flying in, we thought it best to get them out.”
“It was an ambush?”
“I guess you could say that, sort of like you were going to pull on them.”
“But all that fire power. That couldn’t have been just two people.”
The man laughed again.
“No, of course not. What is your name?”
“ISS agent, Colin Amherst, FS Battalion.”
“Ah. FS. Final Solution. Assassins. Freelance murderers. The bad James Bond types. Well then I don’t feel bad about eliminating so many of you. I just wish we could have gotten the rest.”
“Who are you?” Amherst asked.
“I am General Ivan Baker, State Militia. You are now a prisoner of the First Militia Division,” he told Amherst.
“You know this isn’t over. You may have taken us by surprise this time, but it won’t happen again. They will hunt you down.”
“I know they will try but what you don’t seem to understand is that you can only push people so far and then they push back. The government has exceeded that limit. You are a damn fool if you think we are going to just stand by and let it happen.”
“You can’t win,” Amherst said.
“Maybe not, but we are going to take one hell of a lot of your kind with us. For every one of us who stands and fights, ten of you will go down. That I promise you,” Baker said.
***
“What are we going to do with them?”
“Let them mend, then we will decide what we are going to do. We aren’t really set up to hold prisoners but I sure don’t want to just let them loose either. That just gives Clemons and Spears another person to battle against us again. What I would really like to do is shoot the bastard but that wouldn’t be very sporting, not to mention coming down to their level. I want you to get word to the Idaho Militia. You know where the 1st Militia is and how to contact them. Tell them what has happened and that they are getting closer. They are allocating more and more resources to locating us,” Baker replied.
“I’ll go tonight using the back roads. I take it no one will return to the cabin.”
“They may, but we certainly won’t be there,” he assured the soldier.
***
“Wait. Wait just a minute. Are you telling me that not only did we not capture General Ashton and Major Pearson but that you managed to get over sixty men killed and twenty more shot up? Is that what you are telling me?” the President said in a menacing voice.
“It was an ambush. They made it look like only the two were in the cabin. They waited until we were just about ready to spring the trap and they came at us from all sides. I don’t understand how they knew. Unfortunately the team leader was shot. We don’t know if he is alive or dead.”
“Mr. Spears, I want you to listen very carefully to what I have to say next. This is critical to your future. I have been very specific about using everything to get the job done. I’ve told you to use as much manpower as necessary and I didn’t really care about the cost. You do remember me telling you that, do you not?”
“Yes…”
“Shut up. Just listen. I don’t need any more excuses from you Mr. Spears. What I want is results. I don’t want to hear how hard it is to locate them or how they took you by surprise. I don’t want to hear any of that crap. What do want to hear is that you are making progress. I’m not asking for you to get them all by tomorrow but getting your ass kicked by a bunch of redneck hillbillies is not acceptable. Taylor, I like you, I really do, but I cannot have someone in your position who cannot produce results. If this happens again, you have two choices. You run like hell or come back and face the music. It will not be pleasant for you either way, I can assure you. Not get the hell out of here and produce some tangible results.”
“Yes madam President,” he responded.
“Go. Now,” she said, pointing to the door.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Day 39 Journal Entry
The bitter cold, lack of food, the twelve hour shifts are taking a toll on the workers. We lost four more men today. One was shot by a guard for not following orders. The other three just died from over work and malnourishment.
We are within a few yards of reaching the airport. Trucks are due tomorrow with gravel. That means hard physical labor for all of us. On top of that we get no food tonight so I am sure we will lose a few more men tomorrow. A couple just barely made it back as it was.
By the time we get back it is dark and the temperature is hovering around zero. This was day three and I am giving up hope that anyone will take responsibility. With so many dying, why murder someone in their sleep? All they had to do was just wait. At this rate none of us are going to make it. I am sicker than a dog but I know I have no choice but to go on. It’s that or lie down and die. I refuse to do that for these bastards.
It isn’t even morning yet and I already dread tomorrow. Spreading the gravel is the hardest thing we do. The snow is bad but gravel is ten times worse.
***
Day 40 Journal Entry
The march to the work site was about all anyone could do. Unfortunately, the gravel trucks were waiting for us. They immediately dumped their loads and we started working. It was brutal and back breaking. One poor guy didn’t last an hour before he fell in a heap. He had a heart attack from what we could tell. He
was unceremoniously dragged over to the side of the road and the work went on.
We were so slow in working that it was after dark when we finished. We stumbled back to the barracks and immediately headed to the mess hall. At least we would get food tonight. Thankfully, it was hot soup and as a treat we got both bread and crackers. It felt like Thanksgiving. I saved two of my crackers and half my bread for tomorrow.
I think I’ll call it quits for tonight. We should hook up with the airport tomorrow. I don’t know what happens after that. A lot of rumors are going around but I am not going to get into that game. The truth is no one really knows what they have in store for us.
Oh. We only lost three men today. I was worried about my bunk mate above me. He said he was really sick and didn’t know if he could make another day. He is a good guy and I wish I could do something for him, but what? Maybe I can think of something tomorrow.
***
As soon as we got up in the morning I knew something was terribly wrong. The smell about made me gag. My bunk mate, 9433, was dead. He died sometime in the night. Even as bad as the barracks normally smelled, this was really rank. 1050 and I were told to carry him out and put him in the snow and then take the mattress out as well. What we really needed to do was disinfect the place and air it out but I guess that was out of the question.
This is day five and I am really getting stressed out. Actually everyone is. As cold and tired as we were that’s what most of us talked about as we marched to the work site.
It wasn’t going to take long to link up with the airfield. I was given the job of directing the men where I wanted them to go. It was pretty darn simple. The planes were so low coming in that it felt like we could reach up and touch them. Unfortunately we still couldn’t see what they were bringing in. They always taxied to the other side of the buildings.
Just before dark we were connected to the edge of the runway. There was nothing more for us to do, or so I thought. A half hour later the last of the gravel trucks showed up and we set about spreading the remaining gravel. It wasn’t as bad as usual due to the fewer number of trucks needed this time. When we were finished we were taken back to camp. At least we would not be working into the night.
PROJECT BlueBolt - BOOK II - THE GULAG JOURNAL: BOOK II - The Gulag Journal Page 8